Home is a funny thing.  While I have traveled a great deal, I have lived in one area most of my life.  My wife is almost the opposite.  Most of the places she has been to have been because she lived there.  (She moved 30 times before she was 18.)  So we have very different ideas about what home is.  There are a few places that we agree on.  In looking at the consistencies among these there are a few factors that stand out.

1. They are safe
2. They are simple
3. They are close to wildness
4. They promote interaction to the real world

It is hard for anyone to feel at home or at ease when there is a feeling of threat. Sometimes people live in a place for long enough for it to creep into their bones. Then the environment changes so that there is a threat.  In this case there is a loss of the sense of home but it comes with betrayal.  I don’t know anyone who settles into a place, finding a home while the threat is already present.

At least for my family, the fancier the place, the less it feels like home.  It is so easy to get caught in the glitz and glamour of the materialistic society.  But it’s not really comfortable there.  The strain of maintaining an image is not conducive to a sense of home.  If you are forever worried about breaking something or letting someone in who might get it dirty you will never be able to relax.  If you can’t relax then you are not at home.

These last two might be specific to our family but I don’t think so.  This world of convenience we have fabricated is not the real world to me.  Anytime I can mitigate the consequences of my actions (buy my way out) by applying one of our appliances, I feel a lessening of reality.  In the process of growing up and becoming a contributing member of society, one of the critical elements is an opportunity to test yourself.  As Frank Herbert said “The measure of a man is not what you think he’ll do but what he actually does.”

In wildness there is no way to temper the consequences.  If you set up a tent poorly and you get wet when it rains, then you have direct and precise feedback about your performance.  Blame is irrelevant, you just need dry out and do better next time.

National Parks, especially the wilderness ones, fit all four of these criteria.  When I have asked my children why they like National Parks, they respond with this type of answer.  The needs of my family are likely not so different from the needs of yours.  So we invite you to come home to a Park.  Get dirty and test yourself.  It might be a little alarming what you can or cannot do.  But it is better than ignorance.